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Water Pollution
Dedicated Funding, Industry User Fees Urged To Address Aging U.S. Wastewater
Systems
Members of a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee said June 8 Congress needs to begin laying the groundwork for a new trust fund--similar to those used to build highways and airports--to raise billions of dollars to address the nation's aging wastewater and water treatment systems.
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Water Resources
and Environment, said local officials are increasingly frustrated at the growing
gap between local needs and current federal funding.
"The Congressional Budget Office, EPA, and the Water Infrastructure Network have
estimated that it could take over $400 billion to address our nation's clean
water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years, twice the current level of
investment by all levels of government," Duncan said. "That is a staggering
amount of money," the chairman said.
The hearing focused on whether the federal role in financing such projects
should be expanded, with several witnesses calling for a trust fund supported by
taxes on industries, consumers, users of recreational waterways, growers, and
agricultural chemicals producers.
Subcommittee members said there is little debate over the condition of the
current systems, with a March report from the American Society of Civil
Engineers giving the nation's wastewater infrastructure, for example, a "D-"
grade (46 DEN A-12, 3/10/05 ).
Kenneth Rubin, a consultant for the National Association of Clean Water
Agencies, testified that similar dedicated funds are already in place to fund
specific needs, ranging from the nation's highways to reclaiming abandoned mines
and assisting former miners suffering from black lung disease.
Since 1970, Congress has imposed increasingly stringent federal water quality
mandates, but has provided a declining share of federal funding for often
cash-strapped local communities to improve their infrastructure, Rubin said. The
federal contribution to the nation's wastewater systems has declined from 30
percent in 1980 to less than 5 percent today, he said, with most of that federal
assistance provided as loans to communities.
"Interestingly, this is not the case in other basic infrastructure systems such
as highways, airports, or transit systems" that rely substantially on trust
funds that draw from federal user taxes, Rubin said.
Political Viability of New Taxes Questioned
Several subcommittee members agreed that the local needs outstrip current
federal funding, but questioned whether Congress could be convinced to impose
new user fees. They said support for taxes could also erode because spending
formulas probably would favor older communities that have continued to operate
aging systems, while other communities that have already invested in upgraded
systems might see little benefit.
Advocates for a new wastewater trust fund acknowledged that such a dramatic
change is unlikely in the near future. Bills that avoid imposing new tax
schemes--but simply authorize new funding from current federal revenue--face an
uncertain future in Congress given a recent move in the House to cut funding for
a clean water revolving loan program administered by the Environmental
Protection Agency.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a bill (H.R. 624)
May 18 introduced by Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) authorizing $1.5 billion over five
years in grants for communities to reduce sewer overflows (96 DEN A-3, 5/19/05
).
Rep. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.), a subcommittee member, said the House voted May 19 to
cut funding for EPA's clean water state revolving fund (SRF) in approving the
fiscal 2006 EPA funding measure (H.R. 2361).
The House version provides $850 billion for the SRF, $241 billion below the
current-year level. But a Senate appropriations subcommittee moved to restore
the cut by providing $1.1 billion in clean water SRF funding in its version of
the funding bill, approved by the panel June 7 (109 DEN A-7, 6/8/05 ).
Kelly, who co-sponsored legislation (H.R. 2684) in May to provide $25 billion in
additional SRF funding over five years, said the nation's aging wastewater
systems clearly cannot sustain expected population growth (104 DEN A-2, 6/1/05
).
"But this is an issue that is not going to be resolved in the short-term," she
said.
Targeting Specific Industries Rejected
Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association, said the bottled
and canned beverage industry, which produces soft drinks, bottled water, fruit
juices, and sport drinks, would oppose any targeted tax aimed at its members.
Neely said any fee would harm an industry that employs 211,000 workers
nationwide and would be regressive, hurting low-income people more than others.
Other industrial sectors, such as paper companies, food processors, and other
manufacturing operations, place a far greater burden on water systems, Neely
said. Of the total 400 billion gallons of water drawn each year in the United
States, far less than 1 percent--about one of every 3,300 gallons--is used by
the beverage industry, she said.
Duncan said the current system may rely too heavily on local taxpayers, who in
some states are facing higher water and sewer rates to pay for such
improvements. "Thank goodness at the local and state level rate payers are
picking up the bulk of [the costs] but there is certainly an important federal
role" in funding such projects, he said.
"As some have said, unfortunately we're spending more on the wastewater [and]
clean water infrastructure in Iraq, per capita, than we have over the last
couple years in the United States" at the federal level, Duncan said.
By Dean Scott